Helping our Nation’s Military & Their Families in Their Local Communities

*YRA Community Based Support Efforts

Operation Christmas For Our Troops & Their Families

ORANGE COUNTY, California, 2017 – Operation Christmas For Our Troops & Their Families is a non-partisan Christmas holiday effort to give community based support to America’s deployed and at home military Units and their families.

The effort, which supports the National Guard, Reserve and Active Duty deployed and at home military Units and their families, began in November 2004 and has grown every year since. It is not just the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard members that are affected when they are deployed and away from home but also the families who are left behind.

At this time Yellow Ribbon America is working to help get Christmas support for as many Units that we can for the 2016 year. We have a Christmas Support waiting list! Just email us your Unit’s information, Branch of Service, please state if you are a Reserve, Active Duty, National Guard component , how many military members are in the Unit/Unit’s, children’s ages, number of boy’s/girl’s, number of Single military member’s, Unit’s State and area location and your Unit’s Commander, Chaplain, Senior NCO, FRG, POC person, individual military family’s information and we will contact you ASAP if community support is available!

The community relationships that we help bring together during the Christmas Holiday Season help America’s Military Units and their families get vital community support year round! This is the whole reason Yellow Ribbon America Campaign for America’s Military & their Families and Operation Christmas For Our Troops & Their Families was created!

Thank you to all our GREAT fellow Americans for helping to make this happen!! The BEST Support is Local Community Based Support!

Merry Christmas!

Military Unit & Military Family Support Campaign

The mission of Yellow Ribbon America is to provide a national community based framework to help organize America’s cities and towns, to deliver immediate and direct support for their local deployed military personnel and the families who are left behind.

Yellow Ribbon America’s ongoing mission is to educate, motivate, activate and unite all Americans, so they can give direct help and support to members of our Nation’s military and their families in their own individual communities.

The Yellow Ribbon symbolizes our commitment to honoring and assisting the members of America’s military while they are deployed and upon their return home, and assisting their families and the families of those who have fallen or are missing.

Welcome Home Project

They never asked for anything. Not sympathy, not understanding not even a thank you. Soldiers returning from this war wounded have had their lives forever changed. Transitioning back to civilian life for these folks is daunting. Their idea was simply to have a welcome home ceremony for these brave men and women and say thank you for your sacrifice, and your service. they had no idea how a simple gesture like this would grow into what this has become.

In 2006 Jonathan Elias an award winning journalist from KNXV in Phoenix, AZ and his wife asked local businesses and community leaders to support their idea. In no time, they had commitments for as many gift baskets as we needed, containing everything from two round-trip tickets on Mesa Airlines and $200.00 dollar dinner certificates to the finest steak house in town, to a nearly a dozen free car washes, free gasoline, groceries, movies, even a Visa card for $100.00 – all practical gifts to ease their transition. To date they have given away nearly $150,000.00 in gift baskets to Arizona Purple Heart recipients.

Their goal is to unite America’s communities. Without regard for political leanings they just wanted folks to know that the men and women risking their lives for our Country are fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, and sons and daughters. CEO’s, politicians (both Democrats and Republicans), teachers, police and fire fighters, journalists, school children, and anyone who wanted to say thanks. They could never have known the power of thanks. Soldiers cried at seeing this kind of unexpected appreciation. The CEO of Mesa Airlines was so moved by his involvement that he wanted to take this effort to other states.

They have received letters of thanks from those in the community who didn’t know this kind of avenue existed to thank our troops. They have heard a lot from Vietnam Veterans who wished that something like this existed when they returned from war. We can only hope that a simple gesture such as this will bring some closure to those returning now. President Lincoln once said, “We are the land of the free because of the brave.” We agree, we owe these brave men and women a debt we can never repay, but at the very least we can say “Thank You, and Welcome Home”.

Since the Welcome Home Project was started our hope and goal is that every community in America reaches out to our returning war veterans and their families and helps them in everyway possible so they really see and feel that they are not alone in their struggles and their community is there to help and support them. – Jonathan Elias,News Anchor / Reporter at WJLA-TV ABC 7 in Washington, D.C.

Hero Families

Sacrifice is not all overseas
The men and women abroad are trained and skilled in serving our country, but their spouses and children are left with emptiness in their hearts and homes. Their heroic stores are often overlooked. Please take a minute and read their stories.